Lardner’s Prepared Charcoal for the Teeth

FOR Beautifying and Preserving the TEETH.—LARDNER’s superior prepared CHARCOAL, so much recommended by the Faculty for its safe and antiseptic properties, for cleaning, preserving, and making the teeth beautifully white, in boxes at 2s. and 2s. 9d. each; and Mouth Solution, for curing the scurvy, bracing the gums, preventing the tooth ach, and unpleasant breath, in bottles at 2s. 9d. and 5s. 6d. each. From the great reputation the above preparations have acquired, many imitations are daily offered for sale: the true only are signed “Edmund Lardner” on the label. It is sold wholesale and retail, corner of Albany, Piccadilly; and retail by Newbery, St. Paul’s Church-yard; Rigge, Cheapside; Vade, Cornhill; Davison and Son, Fleet-street; Bacon, Oxford-street; Bailey and Blew, Cockspur-street; and most venders of genuine medicines.

Source: The Times, 22 February 1809

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Nowadays we know that to discover the secret of teeth-whitening, you have to be a single mum, but at the turn of the 19th century it was an ordinary chemist, Edmund Lardner, who introduced this new dentifrice to the public.

Charcoal had long been known as a tooth-whitener, but more so in the East than in this country, and Lardner’s attempts to encourage British people to use it met with approval from physicians.

In 1805 his company published a 3-page pamphlet extolling charcoal’s virtues.

It possesses the desirable qualities of rendering the teeth beautifully white; destroying the fætor arising from carious teeth, which contaminates the breath; removing the scurvy from the gums, and stopping the progress of the decay of the teeth, while, at the same time, it is incapable of either chemically or mechanically injuring the enamel.

A year later, one of Lardner’s shopmen, Alexander Blake, left the company and began selling his own version of the tooth powder, still using Lardner’s name. Lardner claimed to have improved the original product and also upped his competitive game by introducing a new Concentrated Solution of Charcoal.

His enthusiastic promotion of charcoal for the teeth was perfectly acceptable. The only odd thing was that his products didn’t actually contain much of it. The Prepared Charcoal was mainly powdered chalk, with a small amount of genuine charcoal or ivory black (a pigment made from charred animal bones) to darken it. The Concentrated Solution was a spirituous infusion of roses and myrrh, and was later renamed the Mouth Solution. The Medical Observer, while broadly sympathetic to Lardner as a reputable druggist, commented

In what respect roses and myrrh resemble charcoal, we know not,

while The London Medical and Surgical Spectator saw nothing wrong with the solution itself but objected to the false name.

The products remained popular and were used by Lord Byron, who asked his friend Douglas Kinnaird to send him a supply while he was in Venice in 1818. Activated charcoal is still known today as a tooth whitener and odour neutraliser, and Korean and Japanese companies have recently introduced it in a fascinatingly unappealing toothpaste form.

For centuries, people have sought new ways of overcoming illness and pain. Numerous practitioners - some more reputable and competent than others - have responded with treatments and advice. The Quack Doctor focuses on those around the fringes of the medical profession - the patent remedy vendors, entrepreneurs and even downright fraudsters who have always made the most of people's desire to be well.
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